Uwe Hermann - ptphttp://www.hermann-uwe.de/taxonomy/term/959/0
enMy new toy: the Canon PowerShot A610, and how to use it with Linuxhttp://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/my-new-toy-the-canon-powershot-a610-and-how-to-use-it-with-linux
<p><a href="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/node/649"><img src="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/files/images/canon_powershot_a610.preview.jpg" width="200" height="150" align="right" hspace="5" alt="My new Canon PowerShot A610" /></a></p>
<p>So, I finally got myself a new digital camera &mdash; the <a href="http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&amp;fcategoryid=145&amp;modelid=11998">Canon PowerShot A610</a>. Judging from <a href="http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=765">some</a>, <a href="http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/A610/A610A.HTM">good</a> <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0508/05082202canona610a620.asp">reviews</a> I read, it looks like the best option for my purposes and for the price I'm willing to pay.</p>
<p>It's a 5 megapixel camera, it has a 4x optical zoom, it's pretty fast, can do videos (640x480 at 30 fps) etc. etc.</p>
<p>Of course, it only comes with a 16 MB <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card">SD-card</a> which is a joke, so I'll need to get something like a 1 GB card soonish.</p>
<p>It seems to be pretty well-suited for macro photography (1cm minimum distance), see the samples on the right.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/photoblog/scissors"><img src="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/files/images/scissors.thumbnail.jpg" width="100" height="75" align="right" hspace="5" alt="Scrissors" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/photoblog/pen"><img src="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/files/images/pen.thumbnail.jpg" width="100" height="75" align="right" hspace="5" alt="Pen" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Linux usage:</strong></p>
<p>Using this camera with Linux is not as simple as mounting it as an USB mass storage device. Instead, the camera uses the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_Transfer_Protocol">Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP)</a> for file transfers.</p>
<p>Fortunately, the wonderful <a href="http://www.gphoto.org/">gphoto2</a> (<code>apt-get install gphoto2</code>) supports that, so I can easily get all images and videos off the camera with a simple<br />
<code><br />
gphoto2 --get-all-files<br />
</code><br />
(actually, the camera is only "supported" in the current gphoto2 CVS version, the latest stable release, 2.1.6, doesn't really recognize it &mdash; but it still works ;-)</p>
<p>As I now have a pretty solid digital camera (compared to <a href="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/hardware/kyocera-ez">my last one</a>), and I've also been gifted a good book on digital photography, I hope to be able to improve the quality of the photos in my <a href="http://www.hermann-uwe.de/photoblog">photoblog</a> quite a lot in the nearer future.</p>
<p>In any case, I'll sure have some fun with this new toy...</p>
http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/my-new-toy-the-canon-powershot-a610-and-how-to-use-it-with-linux#commentsa610cameracanondebiandigicamdigitalgphotolinuxpowershotptpusbWed, 21 Dec 2005 05:36:22 +0100Uwe Hermann650 at http://www.hermann-uwe.de